TIME UP FOR THE LOOTERS’
PARTIES
· A Clarion call for support for SPN to Fix Nigeria
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| SPN Leaders with an INEC National Commissioner (2nd left) at Formal Presentation |
The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN)
cherishes this historic occasion of the collection of our certificate of
registration from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in
compliance with an order of the Federal High Court Abuja.
As you are by now well aware, today’s
epochal event is the culmination of a legal and political battle that lasted three
and half years. It started on September 10, 2014 when SPN filed a case against
INEC at the Federal High Court Abuja Division and came to a glorious end on 28
November 2017 when Justice Gabriel Kolawole in a courageous judgment ordered
INEC to register our party within 30 days having contravened section 78
(2) of the 2010 Electoral Act (As Amended).
We are grateful to Nigerians and all
lovers of justice the world over who stood by us during this struggle.
While the court case might have been
laid to rest, the issues over which our party mounted a three and half year
legal and political battle are far from over. These issues pertain to the
onerous and expensive requirements for registration of political parties. Eighteen
years after return to civil rule, it is a shame that our electoral system
remains this undemocratic. Thanks to these onerous requirements, elections have
therefore become nothing more than regular ritual to allow the poor choose
among the class of exploiters who would oppress and exploit them for another
four years. However the cumbersome and expensive nature of the electoral system
is not accidental. The agenda is to bar workers and the poor from having a
political voice. But SPN believes that politics should not be for the rich and
corrupt politicians alone. The poor should also have a political voice. Hence,
the SPN will continue, in alliance with the labour movement and civil society
organizations, to campaign for the full democratization of the electoral process.
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| SPN members outside INEC office Abuja after collectio |
This said, today marks the beginning
of a new chapter in the history of Nigeria. In fact the registration of the SPN
could not have been timelier. It is coming at a period when Nigerians are yearning
to be rescued from the clutches of the Buhari/Osinbajo All Progressive Congress
(APC) capitalist government which has succeeded over the last three years in
subjecting Nigerians to harrowing hardship, pain, tears and sorrow. Whether
economically or politically, whether in terms of insecurity across the country
or anti-corruption war, whether in the areas of service provision and
infrastructure development, the Buhari/Osinbajo APC government has failed
spectacularly just like the past PDP governments. It is equally obvious that
Nigerian masses do not want a return to the previous PDP era.
More Nigerians are poorer today than
ever before. Much more Nigerians especially young people are unemployed. We
need an emergency programme for job creation tied to a socialist economic plan
that will ensure that huge numbers of graduates and non-graduates are employed
as soon as they leave school. Without this, Nigeria faces imminent social
implosion.
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| Party members and supporters celebrate with Certificate at SPN Secretariat in Abuja |
Public education is fast collapsing
yet the government is planning to budget less than 8% to the sector in 2018.
Teachers, academic and non-academic staff are poorly paid yet government
expects them to give their best not minding their empty stomach. We are in full
solidarity with the strike of Kaduna teachers against mass sack. The education
sector cannot be reformed by sacking teachers. By doing this, the Kaduna State
government is only compounding an already bad situation. We need improved
funding of schools, better teaching and learning facilities and a program for
the training and re-training of teachers. This should the priority of a
responsible government. We also call on the government to immediately meet the
demands of SSANU, NASU and NAAT who are currently on strike across the country.
The public health sector is in
terrible shape. As a result many Nigerians are dying daily from treatable
ailments. 5 years after privatization of the power sector, Nigeria remains in
darkness. Despite propaganda, cost of governance remains high while corruption
remains the bedrock of governance. To make matters worse, this government
cannot even guarantee availability of fuel products at affordable prices and
yet it calls itself a government of change!
Today Nigeria is like a big cemetery
given the daily news of killings going on in different part of the country. Is
it the Boko Haram insurgency that has not been fully quelled you want to talk
about or the herdsmen/farmers conflict? We condole with the people of Benue,
Taraba and other states where the ongoing herdsmen/farmers conflicts are taking
place. This horrific bloodshed must be brought to an end immediately. We
condemn the Buhari/Osinbajo APC government for being slow to act. We call for
immediate action to help defend those under attack and the arrest and
prosecution of the perpetrators and sponsors of these killings.
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| Abiodun Bamigboye Deputy National Chair speaking to journalists |
Everywhere you look, the abysmal
failure of the APC will stare you in the face. Another term for this regime
would mean another four years of sorrow, tears and blood. Now is the time to
send them packing!At the same time we must not allow the PDP or any other
anti-poor pro-capitalist parties like APGA to replace them. They are all the
same having shared the same the capitalist economic agenda which also dictate
their social and political policies. We need a party that truly represent
interests and aspirations of workers, artisans, poor farmers and the poor
masses in general. That is why the SPN has sought registration and fought to
ensure its realization.
OUR CONVENANT WITH NIGERIANS
It is not difficult to fix Nigeria.
Why other political parties have failed is because they support capitalism and
anti-poor economic policies. In contradistinction to them, the Socialist Party
of Nigeria (SPN) stands for new, fresh and alternative socialist ideas on how
to run Nigeria in the interest of all. We are prepared to play a role in forthcoming
elections both in the states as well as the 2019 general elections as a
credible political alternative to all those who are disenchanted with the
status quo and desire a different kind of politics.
Now the choice before our people is
no more between six and half a dozen or between the devil and the deep blue
sea. Now the choice is between parties that support policies that enrich a few
at the expense of mass majority and a party that supports policies that would
ensure collective ownership of the means of production and redistribution of
wealth such that very Nigerian is able to live a happy, fulfilled and
comfortable existence.
We strongly believe that with
Nigeria’s enormous wealth, no Nigerian deserves to be poor, no Nigerian
deserves to go to bed hungry, and no Nigerian deserves to be homeless or
unemployed. As a political party, we are all out to offer and campaign for a
socialist alternative. Our core agenda is to defend and protect the
socio-economic and political interest of workers and the poor masses in
general. This why SPN shall:
•Reverse all anti-people policies of
privatization, commercialization, deregulation etc., and in its place, the
commanding heights of the economy starting with the oil and gas industry, banks
and financial institutions will be nationalized and placed under democratic
control of workers and consumers in order to end corruption and bring about
efficiency.
•Reverse the privatization of public
electricity and place it under democratic public control. We shall increase power
generation exponentially and ensure stable supply of cheap electricity to home
and industry, pursue and recover all public monies which has been given to the
private owners of electricity and put to trial all those responsible for the
stealing of our public wealth through different guises.
•Commit to massive public
expenditure in basic infrastructures and social services like transport system,
education, healthcare, mass housing, technology, water supply, etc., in order
to create jobs on a massive scale. We shall immediately declare public
education and healthcare free at all levels.
•Commit to reducing jumbo salaries
and allowances of top political office holders and top bureaucrats. No
political office holder deserves to earn more than the average wage of a
skilled worker. All revenue saved by this reduction will be invested in basic
infrastructures.
•Implement a policy of living wage
and pension. We support the demand of the labour movement for N56, 000 minimum
wage and we want it regularly increased in line with the inflationary rate. We
also demand immediate payment of backlog of salaries and pensions in about 20
states of the federation.
•Commit to progressive taxation and
shifting the tax burden from the poor to the rich. Therefore, the wealth and
assets of the super-rich will be taxed heavily.
•Stand for the protection of
democratic rights including the rights of all minority groups and ethnic
nationalities. This also includes the right to assemble and speech, freedom of
movement, freedom to reside anywhere of choice, freedom to hold opinions and
expression. We are committed to the unity of the working masses, respect the
cultural, linguistic and religious rights of minorities but recognize the right
of all peoples to self-determination.
· Take proactive step to resolve the herdsmen/farmers conflict
using democratic means involving solution-driven discussions with all aggrieved
parties while taking necessary security actions promptly bringing to justice
all those who engage in individual acts of terrorism against the people. But
most importantly we shall take steps to develop and modernize agriculture (food
crop production, cattle breeding and other livestock production as well as
fishing) and create genuine unity and solidarity between poor farmers and
cattle breeders which is the only basis for restoration of lasting peaceful
relations in that area.
•Fight corruption by running an open
transparent administration and governance by bringing the mass of the people
into governance to checkmate bureaucracy, nepotism and cronyism. Elected
representatives of workers, community, social groups, alongside government
representatives will transparently and democratically run administration at all
levels.
Above all, we will put an end to the
capitalist system which is the fundamental source of corruption.
The full details of our manifesto
and programmes will emerge in due course after the various organs of our party
would have met.
Thank you once again
Abiodun Bamigboye
Deputy National Chairperson
Chinedu Bosah
National Secretary
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